I'm Ready
Recording Artist: Bryan Adams
Writers: Jim Vallance
Bryan Adams
Date Written: October 1978 / Vancouver Canada
Albums: Cuts Like A Knife (A&M Records, 1983)
Bryan Adams Unplugged (A&M Records, 1997)
The Best Of Me (A&M Records, 1999)
Bare Bones (2010)
Charts: #26 - Billboard Top Tracks Chart / 1983 (9 weeks on the chart)
#20 - UK Chart / March 1998 (2 weeks on the chart)
#32 - The Record (Canada) / 1998
#26 - Netherlands / 1998
Awards: 1984 - Juno Award Nomination (Canada) - Single of the Year
2007 - SOCAN Classics Award for more than 100,000 radio performances in Canada
Audio 1:
  Rock version - from the album "Cuts Like A Knife" (1983)
 
Bryan Adams: rhythm guitar, vocal
Keith Scott: rhythm guitar, lead guitar
Tommy Mandel: organ, synthesizer
Dave Taylor: bass
Mickey Curry: drums
Backing vocals: Bryan Adams, Lou Gramm
 
Produced by Bob Clearmountain and Bryan Adams.  Recorded by Bob Clearmountain, September 1982, at Little Mountain Sound (Vancouver) and the Power Station (New York).  Mixed by Bob Clearmountain.
Audio 2:
  Unplugged version - from the album "Bryan Adams Unplugged" (1997)
 
Bryan Adams: acoustic guitar, vocal
Keith Scott: acoustic guitar
Patrick Leonard: piano
Tommy Mandel: keyboards
Davy Spillane: Irish whistle
Dave Taylor: bass
Mickey Curry: drums
Danny Cummings: percussion
Strings: Julliard School String Ensemble, arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen
 
Produced and arranged by Patrick Leonard and Bryan Adams.  Recorded by Bob Clearmountain and Dave Hewitt, September 26, 1997, Hammersmith Ballroom, New York, on Remote Recording Services.   Mixed by Bob Clearmountain at Warehouse Studios, Vancouver.
Audio 3:
  Unplugged version - from the album "Bryan Adams / Bare Bones" (2010)
 
Bryan Adams: acoustic guitar, vocal
Gary Breit: piano
 
Produced by Bryan Adams. Recorded by Ben Dobie at the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts in Binghamton, New York, June 14, 2010.   Mixed by Bob Clearmountain at Mix This, Los Angeles California.
Cover Versions: Also recorded by Ian Lloyd
Comments:
Ian Lloyd
Bryan Adams at the Hammersmith Ballroom in New York City, September 26, 1997 during the "MTV Unplugged" session. >
45RPM single sleeve
Bryan and I wrote "I'm Ready" in 1978, but he didn't record it himself for another four of five years. Instead, Ian Lloyd was the first artist to record the song (it appears on Ian's 1979 album "Goosebumps", produced by Bruce Fairbairn).

Bryan finally got around to recording "I'm Ready" for his third album "Cuts Like A Knife" in 1983.

I love the energy of that 1983 recording -- producer Bob Clearmountain captured a great Rock-and-Roll performance in the studio -- but I've always considered "I'm Ready" to be an unremarkable song with a half-baked lyric. In fact, Adams and I used to joke about the lyric's shallowness ...

One time, about 1985, Bryan was a guest on a radio talk-show in Vancouver, and fans were phoning in with questions. I called the station.  Disguising my voice (quite well, I thought) I asked Bryan: "What do the lyrics to 'I'm Ready' mean?". Bryan started to laugh and said, "Is that you, Vallance?"
Considering the low esteem in which we held the song, I was surprised when Bryan told me he planned on recording "I'm Ready" for his 1997 "MTV Unplugged" CD. I was even more surprised to learn that he'd re-arranged the song as a ballad, complete with Michael Kamen string arrangement. I didn't know what to expect, but when he invited me to his Warehouse studio and played the finished track, I was floored.  I loved it!

Bryan hired Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard to arrange and produce the MTV session, and I think he did a fabulous job! At their first meeting, Patrick asked to hear every song Bryan had ever written. When they got to "I'm Ready", Patrick heard something that Bryan and I had previously missed. 

Patrick re-shaped our up-tempo rock track into a beautiful ballad.  In fact, it's now one of my favourite songs from the years I spent with Bryan.

In 2001 Bryan recorded an Italian version of "I'm Ready" -- "Io Vivo In Te" -- with a new lyric by the Italian recording artist Zucchero.
Lyrics: I'd like to see you, thought I'd let you know
I wanna be with you every day
Cuz I've got a feelin' that's beginning to grow
And there's only one thing I wanna say

I'm ready - to love you
I'm ready - to hold you
I'm ready - I'm ready
Ready as I'm gonna be

She left me a long note when she left me here
Told me that love was hard to find
But baby it's easy and I'll make it clear
That there's only one thing on my mind

I'm ready - to love you
I'm ready - to hold you
I'm ready - I'm ready
Ready as I'm gonna be